Severe storm strikes southeast Queensland

The worst of the storm activity looks to be over for the Brisbane region after the city's inner-west copped a battering, with hail bigger than golf-balls pelting Kenmore and surrounds.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Jonty Hall said on Sunday night the biggest hail stones reported were 9 centimetres in diameter around Boonah, though Mt Coot-tha, Bardon and Toowong were pelted with stones as large as tennis-balls.

The massive storm - flagged in a brisbanetimes.com.au story Friday - was clearly visible on a BoM radar image taken at 10.12am Saturday. The radar showed the intense storm centred between Amberley and the Ipswich CBD, moving east towards Brisbane.

However the bureau did not issue an alert about the severe weather until 10.50 am, after the storm front mashed into Brisbane city and about the same time the Queensland Police posted this message on its Facebook page, accompanied by a photo of the deluge in Roma Street:

"Outside Police HQ...might need to get that poncho out if you're walking. #qldstorm"

(The police also put out a general warning at 9am Saturday for severe storms, with a spokesperson telling brisbanetimes.com.au today that they rely on the BoM for specifics.)

The bureau's warning said that severe thunderstorms had been detected on the radar near the Brisbane CBD, Logan City and Strathpine, and that they were moving towards the east, with damaging winds expected.

The BoM began issuing regular warnings after that, which combined with safety messages from the Queensland Police, Energex and Emergency Management Queensland, began to give a fuller picture of the storm's severity.

Responding to criticism on Facebook and Twitter that Brisbane residents were insufficiently warned about Saturday’s brutal weather activity, Dr Wardle said the BoM had been predicting the likelihood of severe thunderstorms up to 48 hours before the pattern hit.

But the rapidity with which the storm developed left little time to issue a warning he said.

“Yesterday’s [Saturday's] storm developed very rapidly,” Dr Wardle said. “Usually they develop before they reach Brisbane so we have plenty of time to warm the populated areas.

“This one developed over Brisbane very rapidly over a few minutes – it didn’t pass the threshold for severe until it was basically upon us.

“We’ve got to be careful about issuing these severe thunderstorm warnings... We could actually have a lot of false alarms which would render the service ineffective.”

Dr Wardle said the threshold weather patterns needed to pass before warranting a severe weather warning was decided by factors such as wind, hail and rainfall.

Typically wind gusts in excess of 90 kms an hour, hail with a diameter of at least 2 cms and heavy rainfall conducive to flash flooding were the key criteria he said.

And while there was flash flooding in Brisbane, Mr Wardle said the rainfall levels captured across some of the affected areas was relatively low at only 30 mm.

The dramatic footage of flooded streets and suburban destruction was partly due to creeks which were already full, and poorly prepared drains and stormwater systems.

"Storm season is upon us," he said. "It’s important to be prepared."

Ipswich City Councillor Paul Tully, meantime, has called for a public apology from the bureau for its "monumental failure" to issue a timely storm warning.

"They must have been enjoying a long morning tea or an early lunch not to realise the intensity of the approaching storm," he said.

Cr Tully pointed out that his own alert to his 1600 followers on Facebook, issued at 10.21 am and saying, "It’s coming. Moving now towards Ipswich’s eastern suburbs after observing a line of storms on a 50km front from Wivenhoe Dam south to Harrisville," came a full 30 minutes before the Bureau’s first official warning.

Other critics took to Facebook.

"Methinks the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (Queensland Weather Warning Feed) must have had their Chrissy drinks last night. They are blaming the speed of this morning's storm for their not being able to issue a warning until 5 minutes after it hit (rattling their building in the process)" wrote Lipscome Mick, linking to the feed.

"You are hopeless !!! More chance of making your own decisions by looking at the sky !!! Your warnings are late and worthless ..." wrote Dallas Garton.

"freaking hopeless.. who has been sleeping on the job then ??" wrote M'lady Stompalot.

Michelle Truesdale reflected on the lack or outreach to social media users — despite most other emergency organisations regularly updating followers of their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds:

During storms, Emergency Management Queensland advises that people should:

Move your car under cover or away from trees.

Secure loose outdoor items.

Avoid driving, walking or riding through flood waters.

Seek shelter, preferably indoors and never under trees.

Avoid using the telephone during a thunderstorm.

Beware of fallen trees and powerlines.

For emergency assistance contact the SES on 132 500.

114 comments

I cannot believe these mindless whingeing bogans who expect the authorities and BOM to hold their hand every time some adverse weather erupts.

Even if they hadn't studied geography at school, they would know that some weather events develop very rapidly.

BOM issued a weather warning - what the hell do these people think "severe thunderstorm" means, a sun shower?

Commenter

BOMber

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

November 18, 2012, 7:27AM

@BOMber - This si the society of today - Govt handouts, no responsibilty for their actions and are always ready to blame someone else for their ills..Actually it sounds more like the LNP and its supporters

Commenter

Mr.Negative

Date and time

November 18, 2012, 7:49AM

At work we noticed a huge cell forming about 9am from the west moving in past toowoomba and moved our cars under cover. If we can tell its coming a couple hours before, the bom certainly should have too.

Commenter

Simon s

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

November 18, 2012, 7:51AM

@BOMber - what does Geography have to do with it, if you were to learn about the weather at school it would probably have been science? Anyway, its their job to know and warn as did BCC at around 9.30am. Even my 6 yo son said that looks like a bad storm daddy and he was right. Nothing on the storm 4 years ago but none the less a big storm that occured outside the normal late afternoon/night ones. Lucky it was a weekend.

Commenter

chrisk

Location

The Gap

Date and time

November 18, 2012, 7:52AM

Could not agree more BOMber. The issues a warning on Friday that there would be super cells on the weekend. I heard it several times. But anyone taking any notice on Saturday would have seen the storm coming - not just on the radar but by sticking your head out the window. We could hear the thunder at least 20 mins before it hit - it was pretty clear a nasty storm was coming in. Plenty of time to move cars under cover, close windows etc. Don't blame the bureau of you are to stupid to read the signs...and to chrisk @ 7.52, basic weather and meteorology IS taught in geography, not science, at let it was when I went through school, which was not that long ago!

Commenter

Pete

Location

Ferny Grove

Date and time

November 18, 2012, 8:20AM

Yeah.Many do not understand the storms in this part of the world. They are unpredictable and move around like a bushfire Sat morning's moved very quickly from Toowoomba to Brisbane. Saturday evening's came at turtle speed and there was one big front from Byron Bay to Wide Bay by the time the cells merged. Luckily no serious damage from what I gather. There was plenty of warning on Friday 16th this could happen.

Commenter

appkw

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

November 18, 2012, 8:45AM

@Pete - when I was at school Geography was about the globe, countries, economies, cultures and environments (not the study of weather however the type of weather such as average temps, landscapes etc). Science taught me about the atmosphere and other things to do with weather. But as you mentioned, maybe things changed between the time you went to school and I did.

Commenter

chrisk

Location

The Gap

Date and time

November 18, 2012, 9:39AM

It's the unfortunate outcome of the last 30 years of politics, welfare, fiat currency and central banking, now we have generations that believe if you cant look after yourself the government will, and if you don't prepare for the future someone else will. EWN is a great service, I got an email and SMS prior as always.

Commenter

Duncan

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

November 18, 2012, 9:43AM

There were articles in all the morning newspapers yesterday highlighting the fact that severe storms could be expected during the day.

Commenter

Ozbob

Location

Congestion Capital

Date and time

November 18, 2012, 11:19AM

Weather is generally taught in geography. Weather is frequently related to topics such as landforms, temperatures, hydrology, soils, climates and so on.